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Danish gov't proposes budget plan for 2017

Xinhua, August 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Danish government presented on Tuesday its draft budget for 2017, aiming to ensure better core welfare and a more secure and safer Denmark.

"It is essential for the government to strengthen core welfare, so all Danes can feel it in daily life," Danish Finance Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen said in a statement.

"We will create security, both in relation to external threats and that for us all to get a good and dignified life," he added.

The government will continue to prioritize the health sector through the new Cancer Plan IV, which carries a total budget of 2.2 billion Danish kroner (about 331 million U.S. dollars) by 2020.

While 1 billion kroner will be earmarked in 2017 to reinforce the core welfare of health, elderly and day care, another 1 billion kroner will go towards a range of initiatives targeting the socially vulnerable.

The government will also set aside 1.3 billion kroner in 2017 and a total of 6.8 billion kroner over the next four years for the recovery of Danish tax authority SKAT that has been hit by multi-billion kroner tax fraud and plagued by problems with its tax collection IT system.

In terms of national security, the government has also proposed a 2.2 billion kroner as a reserve security fund to ensure that Denmark continues to be a safe and secure country.

Additionally, around 525 million kroner will be earmarked in the period 2017-2020 for the expansion of a motorway linking Aarhus, the country's second largest city in the western Jutland peninsula, and Skanderborg, some 30 km to its southwest.

Previously there was a political consensus that the country's structural account must be balanced by 2020. However, in a new economic plan released also on Tuesday, the government has set a target to reach structural budget balance in 2025.

It will accept a structural deficit of 0.25 percent of GDP in 2020 and a fund of 5 billion kroner is expected to be gathered in 2020 by postponing the goal of balance in the economy.

"By setting the target in 2025, we can afford to spend money now when it is really needed," said Frederiksen. (1 U.S. dollar = 6.65 Danish kroner) Endit